GROUP AND INCENTIVE TRAVEL
GROUP AND INCENTIVE TRAVEL
GROUP AND INCENTIVE TRAVEL
Carrousel Travel is your overall single-source group and incentive travel company for any of your travel needs. We have the skill and worldwide knowledge to design your travel incentive program and execute your events and corporate meetings with innovation and creativity. By offering the flexibility of individual planning components and tapping into our worldwide vendor partnerships, we are able to meet all of your needs. We can handle the program details while you focus on the strategic objectives of your event.
GLOBAL INCENTIVE TRAVEL PROGRAMS
GLOBAL INCENTIVE TRAVEL PROGRAMS
GLOBAL INCENTIVE TRAVEL PROGRAMS
Carrousel Travel designs, executes and delivers impactful incentive programs that drive results and improve your company's performance.
Whether you are rewarding your top producers, a sales channel or your own employees, Carrousel has the expertise you need to create memories that motivate.
Our goal? To delight your guests by creating travel experiences that take your program from ordinary to extraordinary. What sets your program apart is the value you add for your guests.
Your dedicated account manager will work with you every step of the way!
Our services include:
- Overall program design
- Destination or cruise selection
- Venue sourcing and contract negotiations
- Corporate social responsibility arrangements
- Private events and daily excursions
- Source and suggest applicable event speakers
- Entertainment selection
- Event production
- Air and ground transportation logistics
- Complete end-to-end program operations
- Dedicated account manager
MEETING AND CONFERENCE MANAGEMENT
MEETING AND CONFERENCE MANAGEMENT
MEETING AND CONFERENCE MANAGEMENT
From board meetings to conferences, Carrousel can help. Our expertise & global partnerships allow us to create the perfect meeting setting. Carrousel has the tools and knowledge to provide the solutions you need.
Our meeting professionals have the special expertise to help you with all of your meeting or conference needs. We have managed meetings from a 15 person board meeting to a conference with 25 breakout sessions and a thousand attendees. We'll manage the meeting logistics while you focus on your important meeting goals.
Our meeting services include:
- Global destination and site selection
- Venue sourcing and contract negotiations
- Air and ground transportation logistics
- Speaker and content management
- Headline talent sourcing
- Conference scheduling and management
- Food & Beverage management
- Décor, theme or entertainment options
- On-site execution
- Promotional items
- Attendee gifts
SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP TRAVEL
SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP TRAVEL
SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP TRAVEL
Focus on the architectural treasures of Frank Lloyd Wright in Japan. Immerse yourself into the culture and art museums of St. Petersburg, Russia. Savor the wine regions of Italy while staying in quaint villages and countryside inns. Sail on a river cruise on the famous Irrawaddy River in Vietnam. Be moved by the World War II history of Normandy in France.
Carrousel Travel has created custom-designed programs for organizations, clubs, families, associations, and other special interest groups for years. Our specialized team can arrange a detailed program based on your specific interests, length of travel, budget, and specialized requests.
Our special interest group services include:
- Mutual tour and itinerary development to meet your needs and expectations
- Manage all program inclusions, such as transportation, hotels, visits to museums, sightseeing, guides, meals and more
- Communicate and partner with your specific location contacts if needed
- Schedule special venues or events, such as private residence dinners, cocktail receptions, private artist or collector visits, and behind the scenes access to places not normally available to the general public
- Manage the entire reservation process: phone and email inquiries and questions, registration forms, participant payment collection, payment to suppliers and all final details
- Create final travel document instruction packet for participants
- Onsite Carrousel program manager to assist throughout with logistics
- Create and produce marketing correspondence, brochures, or email initiatives if required
TRAVEL TECHNOLOGY
TRAVEL TECHNOLOGY
TRAVEL TECHNOLOGY
Our automation tools provide the best approach to your incentive or meeting.
Carrousel utilizes the latest event technology. We keep your participants informed, involved and engaged.
INCENTIVE AND MEETING TRAVEL ONLINE REGISTRATION
Used for each group travel program, this tool can be completely customized and branded to your event, meeting, conference or travel program.
This process allows you to stay on top of participant registrations and critical information. Upon completion, Carrousel will provide reporting that keeps you organized and informed, allowing you to provide the best service to your guests.
INCENTIVE AND MEETING TRAVEL REPORTING
From weekly activity reports to arrival/departure manifests and everything in between. Carrousel provides reporting software that virtually offers hundreds of different types of reports to help you stay on top of your details related to spend, budget, flight information, hotel, and other items.
ONSITE INCENTIVE AND MEETING TECHNOLOGY
We have the tools to create and customize your own event application offering your attendees access to real time information related to the event. From schedules, to speaker bios, to breakout sessions, this tool is completely customizable to your event.
Need a bigger splash? Let us arrange and implement a social wall that shows real time tweets, images, or messages using your event hashtag. This is an excellent way to keep the energy high and keep your audience engaged!
TRAVEL PROGRAM MARKETING
TRAVEL PROGRAM MARKETING
TRAVEL PROGRAM MARKETING
Marketing goes hand in hand with our planning process. See what we can do to get the word out.
Our marketing services can help create awareness, interest and motivation for your loyalty rewards program, sales incentive, meeting, conference or event. We have the tools to assist you in the following ways.
INCENTIVE AND MEETING MARKETING COMMUNICATION
We can help put a communication plan together and create the message for your event that gets your audience excited and informed about the opportunity, keeping in line with your branding.
INCENTIVE AND MEETING TRAVEL PROMOTION
We have all the tools available to create the perfect program brochure complete with printing and distribution. Need just a teaser? We can design and deliver postcards, flyers and electronic materials for your participants. Let us create communications that you can mail or email to your audience.
INCENTIVE AND MEETING TRAVEL CUSTOM WEBSITE
Our staff can create a custom-designed program website for you. This can include details about your program, as well as participant registration and activity or meeting choice selection. This is all designed featuring your event objectives and needs.
We provide the expertise, first-hand destination knowledge, and high-touch service levels you deserve from your group travel partner. Our global partnerships and vendor alliances position us as your leader in the industry. Our commitment to service excellence results in long-term relationships with our clients.
MEET OUR GROUP TRAVEL TEAM
NEAL KRAEMER
President & Owner
Neal has over 25 years of industry experience and oversees all aspects of our group and incentive travel business. Among our many long-time clients, Neal is known as the ultimate travel guru. If Neal is going, they will eagerly follow. He has orchestrated some of the most incredible once-in-a-lifetime experiences — from a reception at the House of Lords in London, to a private palace dinner with the Maharaja of Udaipur, India, to hot-air ballooning over the temples of Bagan in Myanmar. Neal has been very involved in various industry advisory boards over the years, and also manages several Carrousel CSR projects around the world.
612-798-1452
DOUG MOORHOUSE
Vice President, Marketing and Business Development
Doug has over 30 years of experience in the industry, with specialties in incentive programs, special interest groups and high-end events. He has worldwide connections and has had the privilege of traveling with many prominent individuals, producing large corporate events, and also providing personalized hands-on service. While managing the company marketing initiatives and expanding Carrousel's client base, he enjoys contributing to the overall growth and success of the organization. Doug is heavily involved in the meeting and incentive industry and also serves on the board of SITE Minnesota.
dmoorhouse@carrouseltravel.com
612-798-1439
AMY BEILKE
Account Executive
Amy brings over 25 years of travel experience with her as well as extensive work with corporate sales incentive programs. She has traveled the world and has always had a passion for travel. She also loves seeing how memorable travel rewards can create memories that motivate! From buying out a private island in Bora Bora to an exclusive event at Fort Lovrijenac in the walled city of Dubrovnik to a jungle experience in Costa Rica, she loves to create once in a lifetime travel experiences for her clients.
612-798-1486
LISA STARR
Director, Industry Relations and Account Development
Lisa has more than 30 years of experience in the Travel industry in the incentive, meetings, and special events area. Lisa works closely with the Business Development Directors and contributes to business growth and customer retention through strategizing, designing, creating, pricing and presenting solutions to clients.
She also works on the strategic development of Carrousel Travel including creating processes as well as developing and maintaining standards for negotiations and contracts. She is a recognized industry leader in negotiations and supplier relationships.
One of her favorite quotes is, “Reach for the moon and if you don’t succeed you will land among the stars.”
612-798-1423
SARA KEOMANIVONG MOONEY
Senior Account Director
Sara has over 25 years of travel industry experience with the majority of that time spent at Carrousel Travel. As a seasoned travel professional and travel enthusiast, she has visited over 80 countries (and counting!). Her travels, both professional and personal, have brought her to nearly every corner of the world – from Argentina to Zambia. Passionate about curating travel programs and events that are both memorable and meaningful, she researches and plans every last detail. Sara handles each travel program from start to finish. She is responsible for program site selection, contracting, budgeting, developing, managing and onsite execution. A foodie at heart, she is always looking for the ultimate culinary experience wherever she goes, which might mean a Michelin 3-star restaurant serving a 10-course tasting menu or an unassuming noodle stall in a food market with 4 plastic stools for seating. Her belief is that one should always have a planned trip on the horizon.
612-798-1428
VANESSA M. BLAISDELL
Senior Account Director
Vanessa has traveled her entire life including a move from Minnesota to Tokyo, Japan for a couple of years in grade school. A student of all cultures, Vanessa studied abroad in Martinique, French West Indies, Nepal, Indonesia, Vietnam, The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) and Chiang Mai University in Thailand. Her career in the travel industry began as an intern and has grown over the course of 23 years into that of a proven and successful designer, planner and manager of group travel, meetings, and events to all corners of the globe.
vblaisdell@carrouseltravel.com
612-798-1431
KARI ISAACSON
Senior Account Director
Kari has been in the travel industry since 1998 in a variety of roles from operations, purchasing, study abroad programs, leisure groups and meetings and incentives. She has traveled the globe and absolutely loves to meet new people and learn about new areas and cultures.
612-445-7732
KELSEY ROTHER
Group Account Manager
Kelsey has been with Carrousel Travel since 2015. She joined the group department with previous travel industry experience and has continued to expand her knowledge and expertise. She manages and assists with several programs within the department and handles every detail up to and including on-site management.
612-798-1443
MADI MOORHOUSE
Group Program Coordinator
Madi joined Carrousel Travel in 2022 as a Program Coordinator in our Group department and holds a degree in Graphic Design. She assists every area of the department with program needs as well as creating many different elements from registration sites to brochures. She is excited to grow within the travel industry and to see more of the world!
mmoorhouse@carrouseltravel.com
612-798-1405
Testimonials
Hello Rob and Neal. It’s been a year now that we began a partnership with Carrousel Travel. I want you to know how rewarding it is to work with your team for all of us here. Every “ask” that we have is responded to, and when they say they’ll take care of something they do it in a very timely manner. Excellent follow through. The travel reports are very helpful for our internal team to track our travel spend. Your creative team has done an excellent job on promoting our President’s Club with their very creative mailers i.e. “teasers” that are sent to our sales team to get them excited about the possibility of joining the Club. Congratulations to Carrousel for running a successful travel agency in so many ways.
Carol - Executive Assistant
I just wanted you to know that Amy B. was flat out awesome. She provided tremendous value and was a rock in difficult situations. I can’t say enough about how awesome she truly was. Take care of that incredible employee. She represents your company very well.
Robert - CEO
I want to congratulate you on the superb staff that you have. They assisted us in coordinating our Annual Sales Meeting this past week, and because of their talents and hard work it was a great success. They went over and above our expectations in making sure that our employees and our guests were supported throughout the meeting. We look forward to the next opportunity to work with your staff and your company.
Bill - Director of Sales
I wanted to thank both of you and your onsite team for the great work at our NSM. You all did a fantastic job managing the complexity of our many breakouts, all the awards distributed, and running our awards night. Your expertise helped everything run smoothly and it all appeared seamless. Thanks so much!
Tammy - Director of Franchise Marketing
Wow! - 450+ passengers in one day. It has to be our one-day largest movement ever to Europe. Nice work on the program and being a resource for us. We can't thank you enough for your service.
It's a perfect partnership!
Jeff - Director of Sales and Operations
After using a different Travel Service for 6 years, we recently made a change and went with Carrousel Travel for our 2017 program. I am happy to say we were so pleased we are in the process of planning our second incentive trip through Carrousel. Customer Service Excellence is our motto at Merrill Distributing, and Amy has more than exceeded any expectations I had. Emails / Phone Calls are answered promptly. Any questions or requests we have are answered quickly. We had MANY last minute concerns and changes this year and Amy handled each one of them professionally and seamlessly. She made herself available via phone/email if needed on the weekend of our trip and had the best follow-up of anyone I have ever dealt with. Top notch service!!
Jolene - Marketing Team Leader
